Whirlwind Romance
by Sookie's Secret Santa
Summary: To: Pam & Alcide. From: Secret Santa. All Human. Pam is having the worst day ever. Not only has her long term boyfriend told her would never propose but there's also a Cat 3 hurricane breezing toward her. M for language.


**Whirlwind Romance**

To: Pam Ravenscroft and Alcide Herveaux. (And FanotheFang)

From: Secret Santa

Summary: AH. Pam is having the worst day ever. Not only has her long term boyfriend told her would never propose but there's also a Cat 3 hurricane breezing toward her.

_A/N: in this story, I tried doing something I'm not comfortable with. For me, it's making Eric a complete asshole. I'm used to writing him in a positive light but what's an exchange for if not to stretch your limitations a little?_

~v~

Pam smiled her brightest smile as she gently put the plate of pancakes in front of Eric. Strawberry, not blueberry, with whipped cream and not syrup, Eric's favourite, as always. He smiled back at her, like he did every morning, and dug in with abandon. Eric knew that he was lucky to live with a woman like Pam, she was intelligent, successful and beautiful, a damn good cook and a wildcat in bed ... when Eric had the energy to succumb to her charms.

He watched her potter around the kitchen in her Chanel skirt suit and Jimmy Choo heels; she was vastly different from the waitress he's been screwing for the last year. But Arlene would never make him pancakes or do his laundry or make sure the shower gel he loved was always plentiful. Pam set her dishwashing gloves to the side and took a deep breath. It had been a couple of years since she'd broached this subject but a lot had changed and, in her opinion, it was time to bring it up again.

"Did you hear that Bill asked Selah to marry him?"

Eric grunted. "Another one down the drain! Honestly, are we the only two people with any sense?"

"What do you mean, down the drain? They're making a commitment to each other, having a ceremony to celebrate their love! Doesn't it bother you that we've been living together for five years, all of our college and work friends are married – some of them starting families – and we're still stuck in some kind of undefined limbo!"

"It's not limbo, Pam. You want to define something that doesn't need to be defined." Eric sighed and put down his fork. "If you want to get married and have some big ceremony with a big diamond and a pointless license and sky high invoice ... you'll need to find someone else."

"Are ... are you breaking up with me because I want to get married?" Pam gasped and pulled out the chair opposite Eric, slumping into it with her hand over her heart.

"No, sweetie, I'm just telling you that I won't be that guy. I refuse to get married, point blank."

"Even if it's what the woman you love really wants? Do you know how many times I've gone along with what you want because I love you? _You_ wanted this apartment – I wanted the duplex in the quieter side of town. But we moved here, because you really wanted it and I love you!"

"Renting an apartment is a little different to getting married, honey. If you want a big diamond ring, I'll buy you a big diamond ring – just not as an engagement ring."

Eric gulped down his coffee and attempted to make a quick exit, he had no intentions of getting into a deep conversation about this. He would leave for work, have a nice 'lunch' with Arlene and by the time he came home, Pam would have calmed down and he could talk her off the ledge.

"You're leaving? Right now? You didn't even answer my question!"

He kissed her quickly on the cheek. "Sorry sweetie, you know how my boss is."

Eric ran out of the door, missing the tears run over Pam's cheeks as she whispered after him. "You don't have a boss, not since you took over the company."

The radio in the kitchen babbled as she silently cried. She had given Eric everything; she had passed on promotions that would require her to move so she could be with him. She had stopped asking him to take her to Merlottes for dinner because he always wanted to go somewhere else. She had stopped wearing make-up because Eric said he preferred her natural beauty.

Time for her to leave for work came and went as she thought about where to go from here. Her tears had dried and she was left in a strange state of numbness.

_Shock - that's what this is. Shock that my boyfriend that I dedicated myself to is a complete asshole._

She shook her head and sighed, wondering what to do with herself. Outside, the trees bent in the wind and the rain started to tap against the windows. Pam curled her lip in disgust; she hated the rain ... and the wind. Separately they were bad enough, but together they really put her in the foulest of moods - as if her mood wasn't sour enough. She stood up so suddenly that the chair skittered across the tiled floor and stalked through to the bedroom. The doors of her wardrobe were thrown open violently as she pulled sweaters and shoved boxes out of the way until she found her prize – a full box of unopened Clinique cosmetics. Her girlfriends bought her bits and pieces for birthdays and at Christmas and she saved them, just in case.

_Well, it __**is**__ a rainy day._

She grabbed a mirror and went back into the kitchen, smiling as she picked out the different products she would use. While it may be pointless to some women, this was her little rebellion and she would revel in it. The local news station on the radio crackled behind her and made her pause with one eye closed and a mascara wand in her hand.

"We have a newsflash that the Category one hurricane that was meant to pass us by has changed course. Hurricane Sookie has now been re-categorised as level 3 and is on a direct route through the city. Hurricane Sookie may be on her way folks – keep listening on this channel for updates and pray that she changes course again."

Pam huffed in anger. Just as her mood was starting to lift the radio had to go and ruin it again. As if the world was against her, her cell phone rang, Sophie-Ann's name flashing across the caller ID.

_Oops. I forgot to call in._

"Hi So..."

"Pam! Pam are you okay? Oh my god, we didn't hear from you! You could have been dead or killed or something!"

"I'm not dead. I think ... I think I'm leaving Eric. Can I take a personal day?"

"Aw geez, Pam, I would seriously _love_ to be able to give you a personal day. But I need you to go out the owner of that trailer park to negotiate buying the land. It _has_ to be today and I'm in meetings with Brigant Architecture all day – we need to settle on the plans for the strip mall today or it'll fall through."

"Oh. Well, I guess I'll have to go then."

"I'm really sorry, Pam, I wish I could give you this time but I just can't. It'll be quick – just head on over see how much the guy is looking for and find out how much we can talk him down to. You can have the rest of the day to yourself, but I need you to do that one little thing."

"Okay, I'll do it. What's the lowest I can go?"

Pam continued to apply eye shadow and blusher as Sophie-Ann gave her the finer details of the deal she had to go and strike. Pam hung up on the call and with one last swipe of the lipstick and pout in the mirror – she was ready to face the world.

~v~

The wind was howling ten times worse than when Pam left her apartment by the time she got to Herveaux Trailer Park. She struggled to open the door to her car and struggled even more to close it. Her hair blinded her and the strength of the wind made her eyes water as she tried to see which of the rickety cabins was the Park office. A door was opened and a bear of a man beckoned to her.

"Get inside, quick before you get blown away!"

Pam pushed against the storm and was thankful when the man gripped her arm and helped to pull her inside. There was one other person in the cabin and Pam was very aware that, after all the work she'd done to her appearance before she left, she must have looked like she'd been dragged through a bush backwards.

"Thank you for helping me inside." She smiled as she tried to tame her hair and turned to the man who was still at the door.

"My pleasure, I'm always ready to help out a pretty lady such as yourself."

He smiled and despite his stubble and unkempt hair, Pam was taken aback by how handsome he was. She extended her hand and took in the rest of him. Plaid shirt, work boots, baggy jeans and a considerable amount of grease under his fingernails made her wince a little when he touched her. This man, handsome as he was, was the physical and fashion opposite of her boyfriend. He was the anti-Eric.

Pam cleared her throat; she never quite knew how to talk to the working classes. She'd been brought up in a very nice home with upper class parents and had been schooled with other upper class kids. Her friends were all either well off or very comfortable and manual labour was a dirty word to her entire social and familial circle.

"I'm here to see Jackson Herveaux."

The man rubbed at his chin and shook his head. "He's not here right now; he's setting up the shelter."

"Shelter?"

"Yeah. I'm Alcide, by the way, Jackson's son."

Alcide walked over to a little radio on a counter and turned the volume up. It was crackly and fuzzy but Pam was able to get the main gist of what was going on.

"Hurricane Sookie ... authorities warn ... gather what provisions you can ... seek shelter underground."

"You have _got_ to be kidding me. This is the worst day of my life."

Alcide narrowed his eyes at Pam. "Well, a lot of folks here are about to have their homes blown across the country – can your day be worse than that?"

Pam blinked, she hadn't thought about anyone else or how it would affect them. The fact that someone _was_ thinking about people other than themselves was ... alien to her.

"You're right." Pam nodded. "You said Jackson is setting up the shelter – you have an underground shelter here?"

Alcide shrugged. "It's a trailer park – some of these pieces of junk get blown around by an average storm, never mind a hurricane. There always needs to be somewhere for folks to go and be safe."

"Could I impose on your hospitality and also make use of the shelter?"

"Uh ... you're here and there's a hurricane ... you don't need to _ask_ to be kept safe. I didn't get your name."

"Oh I'm Pam Ravenscroft, from LeClerq Commercial. Is there time to make a quick call before we go underground?"

"You can try." Alcide shrugged. "But not sure if you'll get through to anyone."

Across the trailer a woman's phone rang and Pam smiled, some calls were obviously getting through. She pulled out her iphone and dialled Eric but the line was busy.

"Oh my gosh, Eric Northman! There's a storm going on and you call me to tell me you can't meet our hook up? Well, duh! But it's really nice you called me to let me know, don't you worry your blond head about me ... well I don't care who gives you your Tuesday Blow Job ... you know what – you might be rich and have a massive cock but, Lord Almighty, you can whine like a five year old!"

The woman hung up and looked at Pam. Pam was standing, glaring at her and making a strange growling noise. Alcide waved a hand in front of Pam's face.

"Umm ... Pam? Are you okay?"

Pam raised her arm and pointed at the woman. "Are you fucking Eric Northman, CEO of Fantasia Entertainment?"

The woman smiled proudly. "Yes, I am!"

She stood and walked over, extending her hand to Pam. "Arlene Fowler, I'm a waitress at Merlottes."

Alcide noticed Pam's left eye start to twitch and moved to stand in front of Arlene. Pam gripped Arlene's hand a little too tightly and hissed through her clenched teeth.

"Pamela Ravenscroft, I've been living with Eric Northman for the last five years."

Arlene dropped her hand and opened her mouth, but no sounds came out. Pam's phone ringing broke the tension and she almost threw it across the trailer when she saw it was Eric calling her. She grit her teeth and answered the call.

"Eric."

"_Pam, there's a hurricane! You're not still angry about that little misunderstanding this morning, are you?"_

"No, Eric. I'm angry that you called Arlene for a blow job before you called _me_ to see if I was safe."

"_What? Where are you? How did you know about Arlene? Did you have my phone tapped?"_

"Eric. I hope this hurricane blows your balls inside out."

She hit the end button and dropped the phone back into her purse. Alcide and Arlene glanced at each other, not really knowing what to say or do but the need to fill the awkwardness was ended when Jackson Herveaux threw the door open and shouted to everyone.

"Shelters ready! Everyone hold hands, form a line and follow me."

Pam was shocked out of her rage by both of her hands being grabbed. Alcide was on her left, pulling her out of the door and Arlene was on her right. The winds were so strong that the rain was like needles on any exposed skin; Pam was deaf and blind in the storm. All she had was the people holding on to her. She never saw the tree branch flying toward her, but she felt something hit her head – very hard and then she felt like she was sinking.

~v~

Alcide shook the folds out of another blanket and carefully placed it over Pam's unconscious body. Arlene paced next to him, biting her cuticles and never taking her eyes off the well-dressed woman. They turned as Jackson came down the stairs and went straight to the camping stove to boil a kettle of water.

"I left the knotted ropes tied to the bar handle of the shelter, it's gonna be a struggle to hear if folks start bangin' on that door in this storm though."

"We can take turns sitting at the top of the stairs just in case." Alcide paused for a second, unsure of how to phrase his next question. "Dad, this lady here is from LeClerq Commercial. Apparently she was supposed to meet with you."

Jackson closed his eyes and dropped his head to his chest. "Ah Alcide, I was waiting until after I had spoken to them before I told you."

"Told me what?"

"I ... I gotta sell the land, son. Those high-stakes boys really don't mess around." Jackson laughed uncomfortably. "This one guy has given me a month to pay up; I only owe him ten grand but ..."

"This park is all you've got left because you gambled everything else away." Alcide stood up and stalked over to his Father, stopping just a couple of inches away from him. "Which one is it - Victor, Russell or Felipe?"

"None o' them – hell they wouldn't be so damn nasty about gettin' their money. It was a different guy, Eric Northman, he ain't pissin' around son. Remember I told you the truck got stolen?"

Alcide panted, his eyes widening, his jaw beginning to hurt from clenching it in anger. "He's got it hasn't he?"

Jackson nodded. "He ... he told me it was the truck or my legs."

"Jesus Dad! When will you _ever_ learn?"

Alcide tugged at his curly black hair with his fists as he walked as far away from his Dad as he could. Arlene cleared her throat and raised her hand, a timid smile on her face.

"Jackson are you sayin' that you were gonna sell our homes?"

"No, no, Red. Just the land ... but you'd have had to find another lot."

"Well that makes it so much better! And the guy ... you said his name was Eric Northman?"

"Yeah." Jackson nodded. "Meanest sumbitch I ever had the misfortune to meet."

Arlene sat on the floor heavily. "I can't believe this. I thought he was my white knight, he was gonna take me away from all this. Now it turns out not only is he practically married – he's threatened my landlord, taken his truck and now I'm going to have to find somewhere else to live!"

Alcide narrowed his eyes at Pam and nodded toward her. "Do you think she knows what he's like?"

"You know, I really don't think so." Arlene brushed Pam's hair away from her face. "She looks so innocent. Not the kind of girl that gets mixed up with a nasty asshole. But I've been known to be wrong before, I guess."

Pam stirred and her eyes flickered open. When she focussed on the two faces right next to her she screamed and sat up, clutching the blanket to her chest. Alcide took a step back with his hands palm out but Arlene scooted closer with a concerned look on her face.

"Pam, right?" Pam nodded, trying to work out where she knew this woman from. "You got hit pretty bad with a piece o' tree, how are ya? Do you have a headache or feel dizzy?"

"I ..." Pam reached up and felt her head, it stung where she touched the broken skin and she winced. "Other than feeling like I've been hit with a piece of tree, I'm fine."

Alcide laughed and Pam smiled. Then she remembered who Arlene was and pushed the redhead away from her. She stood up on shaky legs and pointed her perfectly manicured nail at the waitress.

"You! You've been ... been ... fucking my boyfriend!"

Arlene sighed and nodded, looking at her own hands with their chewed fingernails and dish-wash dryness. "Yeah but I swear I didn't know he was with someone, I asked him straight out – it's always my first question before I put any offers on the table y'know. I said 'Ain't there a Mrs. Northman expectin' you home?' and he said 'No ma'am I'm footloose and fancy free'."

Pam sank back to the floor next to Arlene, the rage her energy had been feeding from dissipated and all that was left was self-pity.

"He said that?" Arlene nodded and looked at Pam with concern. "What an asshole. How long was he making a fool out of me?"

"About a year." The waitress chewed her bottom lip. "But, honey, I hate to point this out but there's a big chance I wasn't the first girl he screwed around with behind your back. I'm angry but ... to be honest I'm used to guys disappointing me. This isn't a surprise. What _is_ a surprise is finding out that Jackson owes him ten grand from a poker game and Eric threatened to break his legs if he didn't give him his truck."

"Oh my god!" Pam felt the bile churn in her stomach. "He told me he bought that truck for going fishing! Was any of it real? I feel so stupid!"

Alcide hunkered down next to the women as the noise outside got louder. "Pam, you're a beautiful woman and Eric is obviously a dick for cheating on you. Please don't doubt yourself or your intelligence."

"Maybe we'll all get lucky and he'll get impaled in the storm." Jackson grumbled.

Pam opened her mouth to defend Eric but stopped herself. She didn't even know who Eric was anymore. He certainly wasn't the kind, hard working man she thought he was – why should she defend him? She jerked back in fright as Alcide stood up and ran toward the stairwell. It was hard to hear over the hurricane but someone banging S.O.S in Morse code could be heard. They waited with baited breath as the door screeched open and raise voices floated down to the shelter. Pam heard Alcide call for help and Jackson ran up the stairs in answer.

Arlene and Pam huddled against each other, both women trying to block out the awful noises of destruction overhead. It seemed like hours before the din was muffled and everyone came back down to the shelter. Alcide handed blankets to the newcomers and Jackson went back to the camping stove to make tea for everyone. Pam sat on her blankets as Arlene went to help the others from the trailer park that had come in.

The fact that Arlene knew that they lived on the land and knew them by name was another shock to Pam's system. She didn't know any of her neighbours, their names or which apartments they lived in. There was a young man across the hall from her and Eric but she seen him rarely and ... she didn't really care enough to find out anything else.

As a tin mug of tea was pushed into her hands, Pam realised that she was going through a very life changing situation. The way that she lived wasn't working for her anymore. She couldn't go back to her friends, Eric's friends, and see them at face value ever again. If Eric could be so duplicitous – who knows what everyone else she knew was keeping secret? She watched Alcide talking with the other people from the trailer park; she listened to him asking after many people by name. He cared about them and there were a lot of them. Pam admired his easy smile and concerned expression equally.

Alcide kept trying to get back to where Pam was sitting, he could see she was all alone and, in his opinion, a lady as pretty as her should never have to be lonely. When he eventually got a moment to speak to her again, the way she smiled at him made the room light up.

"Hi! Have you gotten any news about the people you were looking for?" Pam straightened up on her blanket.

"Yeah, sure did. There's just one guy that no-one has heard from, Jason, but he works for the road crew so he'll probably be safe."

"You have a lot of friends." Pam smiled, trying to hide her sadness that none of her friends had tried to contact her.

Alcide shrugged. "We all live close together, practically in each other's pockets, we need to get along or there'd be a war!"

"Still, they're lucky to have a guy like you care about them."

"I wouldn't say that." Alcide sat on the blanket with Pam and picked at his fingernails. "I'm not squeaky clean, I've been in Juvie and spent nights in the cells for starting crap when I've been drinking. I'm willing to bet the guys you're used to have never seen the inside of a cop shop unless they've been reporting their Beemer stolen."

Pam snorted and shook her head. "Yeah and look at what they _don't_ get caught doing. My soon-to-be-very-ex boyfriend is some kind of Yuppie thug who screws Waitresses rather than his Yuppie girlfriend who did everything she possibly could to make him happy."

The tears started again and Alcide uncomfortably patted Pam's shoulder in an attempt to console her. She buried her face in his shoulder and let go of her emotions but inside she was chastising herself for being so self-pitying and uncaring of the pain that the other people in the shelter were going through.

"Hey there's someone bangin' at the door again!"

Pam looked at the man, she remembered his name was Trey, and tried to pull herself together as the men went back up the stairs to let more people in. Arlene tentatively walked over to Pam and picked up her empty mug.

"Would you like more tea?"

"Yes, Arlene, that would be really nice." Arlene nodded and turned to walk away but Pam lightly gripped her wrist to stop her. "I'm sorry, for assuming that you knew Eric was with someone."

"It's okay, I got that look. I know I live in a trailer and that I'm a waitress and that I look trashy, most girls would assume that I knew. Pam, you didn't know about his poker games or anything did you?"

Pam shook her head. "I knew he played poker a couple of times a week, but I thought it was with our friends for fun – not for real money. The thought of him threatening people to get their cash out of them makes me queasy."

There were a few more voices added to the group as the men came back downstairs. Two of them were carrying a teenage boy covered in blood, both women gasped and ran to them as they settled him on another blanket. An older girl came into the shelter, crying as Alcide tried to comfort her.

"I tried to pull him out of the way but the hurricane ... I got Tommy but Terry got stuck between two trailers."

Pam's eyes widened as the gravity of what these people had seen weighed heavy on her heart. So, she did the only thing she could do in that moment – she helped them. Arlene cleaned the wounds as Pam found her way around the first aid kit and once Tommy was bandaged up the women turned their attention to the older girl, Jessica.

Once Jessica had fallen into a fitful sleep, Pam tried to tune out the dreadful noises from above and join her but the thoughts of people above her being hurt and perhaps killed in the destruction of Hurricane Sookie prevented any rest from coming to her.

~v~

The storm had been raging for hours and was showing no signs of quelling. Alcide was handing out rations of the food they had brought. Pam had awoken to the smells of beans and canned ham cooking on the camping stove, without any choices – she ate the offered food thankfully. She even polished off one of the Twinkies that were being passed around for dessert. Alcide looked at her curiously and she experimentally licked at the creamy filling.

"You look like you've never eaten a Twinkie before."

"Uh ..." Her eyes widened as the blush crept up her neck. "My parents were very health conscious; our cook prepared everything from scratch for our meals and lunchboxes."

"You had a _cook_ when you were growing up? Wow, that's ... uh ... interesting."

"Interesting?" Pam shrugged. "It was how we lived, we didn't know any different. So, tell me more about yourself – do you just work on the trailer park or do you have another job?"

"Dad owns a small construction company as well as this land. I supervise the crew and make sure things are all set, health and safety wise, y'know."

Pam looked up at the ceiling and listened to the creaking, howling and crashing above. "Well, you'll have a lot of work to do after Sookie is done."

"Yeah." Alcide nodded. "Just a shame we won't have anywhere to live – our trailer will have been destroyed with everyone else's."

Pam couldn't think of anything to say to that. She earned more that she needed to spend and would be able to stay in a hotel while any repairs were carried out on the apartment. Pam knew the people who had helped her and sheltered her weren't as fortunate as that, but had no idea how she could help them. They were honest people, with perhaps the exclusion of Jackson, and Alcide had been more open with her the few hours they'd known each other than Eric had been in the first few years.

"You've all been so kind to me, I wish I could magic up some nice houses for everyone to live in."

Alcide smiled at her and cocked his head to the side. "I had a plan, a few years ago, to build small apartments on this land. But no-one would give us the financial backing to make it happen ... I guess that's completely done now that Dad is selling the land. What does your boss have in mind for this area?"

"Well, we're a commercial company – so it would maybe be offices or a mini-mall, something like that. It doesn't seem right to buy people's homes from under them so that other people can buy stuff. But I've been in this job for years; the chances are I've helped do that very thing several times over and never even thought about it."

"You're thinking about it now though, right?"

"Yes, yes I am. Maybe I should change more than my boyfriend."

"I can't believe he managed to hide that stuff from you, he must be a hell of a liar."

Pam snorted. "Yes, I guess so. I was planning on leaving him before I even came out here and found out he was cheating and gambling and threatening to hurt people. If we hadn't argued this morning I would be so devastated."

"It must have been some argument if you planned on leaving him."

"I wanted to get married, he didn't. Eric said it was all about the diamond and the ceremony, he didn't get that I wanted the intimacy and commitment more than those things. At least now I know why he wasn't interested in really committing himself to a partnership for life."

"I'd love to meet a girl who wanted to be part of a couple for a while rather than extending it into a family a month after the first date." Alcide shook his head from side to side. "The kind of women I meet just wanna get married so they can pop out a couple of kids and have a man look after all of them. I want someone who wants _me_ not just my salary and my sperm."

"We're quite a pair, aren't we?" Pam smiled. "Completely different ends of the social spectrum, yet with the similar desires for their personal life."

Alcide looked deep into Pam's eyes and took a chance. His lips were pressed against hers before she could even determine what he planned to do and they were gone just as quickly, leaving her lips tingling where they touched. The sounds of the hurricane were drowned out for Alcide as his heartbeat resonated around his entire body, waiting for Pam's reaction, waiting for the slap, the stomp away or the return kiss.

As it turned out, he didn't get any of his usual reactions from her. Pam lifted her fingers to her lips and smiled; the pink blush on her cheeks barely visible in the lamp light. Alcide blinked in confusion as she lowered her hand and curled her fingers into the palm of his hand and squeezed.

"When we get out of here, whether it's an hour or a day, we're going on a date. And I can promise that I don't want your money or your sperm."

"Well, that sounds like a sweet deal to me."

This time, Pam saw the kiss coming and she didn't let go until the rest of the people in the shelter started whistling and cat-calling.

~v~

_One Week Later ..._

Alcide sat uncomfortably in his chair and checked his tie was straight for the 30th time. It was the fanciest restaurant he'd ever been in, but Pam was worth a little discomfort for everything she'd done in the last few days. They had spent just under 24 hours in the shelter by the time the rescue crews could move the debris out of the way and free them. In that time, Pam had become firm friends with everyone and endeared herself even more to the burly construction worker.

As soon as Pam walked into the restaurant her eyes sought out Alcide. When she spotted him she waved and smiled broadly, she had seen him almost every day since Hurricane Sookie moved on but she wasn't prepared for how he looked in his suit. The Maitre D took her over to the table and Alcide stood up as she sat down, he saw that in a few movies and wanted to impress her on their first real date.

"Alcide, you look very dashing!"

"And you look incredible, as always, Pam."

They smiled at the waiter as he took their drink order and handed them menus. Pam could see Alcide fidget in his seat and frowned. She knew this was the kind of place she was used to eating in but after spending time on the trailer park she knew Alcide was more a burger and onion rings kind of guy.

"Um ... you know what? For days I've been hearing you guys talk about Merlottes and how great the food is there. This place is just full of the same over-priced nouveau cuisine you can find anywhere. You said Sam was able to get the place back up and running last night."

"You want to leave this place and go to Merlottes?"

"Yes." Pam grinned.

He tried to hold in his sigh of relief, really he did, but it escaped anyway. Alcide didn't have a clue what to order from that fancy menu and a burger and a beer sounded really good. Once they'd arranged who would be driving (Alcide followed Pam to her hotel where she dropped off her car), they were on their way. The destruction that Hurricane Sookie had left marred the journey to the bar and grille but Pam consoled herself that she was doing what she could to help people get back to normality.

As Alcide pulled into the parking lot Pam became very self-conscious. There was no way she was going to fit in here; her outfit would stand out a mile alone never mind her elaborate chignon. She asked Alcide to wait as she pulled pin after pin from her hair, handing each one to Alcide as she took a brush from her purse to form her long, blonde locks into something low key. Alcide shook his head and tossed the pins on the dash, as uncomfortable as he was in his suit in a fancy restaurant – he understood that Pam didn't want to show up in a redneck bar looking like Audrey Hepburn.

Sam was drying glasses at the bar when they walked in, it was quiet but the area with the pool table was still closed off after the roof was blown in. The bar owner smiled at Alcide but soon became confused when he took in his outfit.

"Geez, Al, you weren't at court today were you?" Just then Pam appeared from behind her date, smiling and stifling a giggle. "Oh! Of course this is the big night!"

He came round the bar and stuck his hand out, shaking Pam from head to toe as he greeted her. "Sam Merlotte; pleased to meet the lady who's getting some of my best friends back on their feet!"

"I wouldn't say that, Sam." Pam started to blush as the few people who were in the bar turned to stare at her.

"Now, Pam, you know if you hadn't gone and suggested the basic apartment idea to your boss it would never have gotten past a pipe dream of mine."

Just then, Arlene came out with a platter on balanced on each hand. She smiled at the doorway but stopped when she saw who had come in. Dropping the platters off at their tables she ran over and enveloped Pam in a hug.

"It's so good to see you, Pam! Come on, you guys can have our best table."

And that was the beginning of the best date Pam had ever been on.

~v~

_Four Months Later ..._

Tabitha Ravenscroft sniffed and dabbed her eyes as Peter Ravenscroft paced back and forth. Pam sighed and turned around to confront them.

"Why can't you be happy for me?"

"Because you're making a mistake." Peter gruffly replied. "You're too good for him."

"No, you mean he isn't rich and snobby enough for _you_. I wasted years on a guy you thought was the bee's knees, he was a cheating bastard who gambled people out of their livelihoods with no thought to how he was ruining them!"

"Now, Pammy, you're exaggerating about Eric and you know it! He was perfect for you!"

"No, he was perfect for _you_ and in case it passed you by – he didn't want to marry me because he was too busy screwing other women!" She stopped and took a deep, calming breath as Arlene rubbed her back. "Alcide loves me and he wants to spend the rest of his life with me – isn't that enough?"

Tabitha made a choking noise and jumped up from her chair, grabbing Pam's left hand and waving it around in front of her.

"For goodness sake, Pam! He didn't even buy you a real diamond!"

Pam looked at the simple silver and cubic zirconium ring and smiled. "I already got my diamond – I just had to crawl through the rough to find him."


End file.
